VIDEO: CRAIG WEDREN Celebrates Hanukkah with New Video 'Sanctuary'

Craig Wedren just shared his latest video for "Sanctuary," a track that was originally found on the Verve Forecast compilation Hanukkah+, featuring new originals and standards of the Jewish holiday produced by Grammy-winning music supervisor Randall Poster and featuring tracks from Yo La Tengo, Jack Black, HAIM and more.

Watch the video from the acclaimed songwriter, singer, film & television composer and Shudder To Think frontman below.

Wedren notes:

"'Sanctuary' is about everything from a terrarium, to my grandma's house, to places of worship-including my studio. It's about environments real and imagined that connect us to ourselves and to others. 'Sanctuary' is also about the cozy hauntings of memories and dreams, some real and some wholly mutated with time, like the story of Chanukah itself."

"I was asked by a friend to create a video for 'Sanctuary' to be used as part of a recent High Holidays event. After we got off the phone, for some reason, I made a sketch of a plant kind of reaching up with its leaves and tendrils. I couldn't shake the image, and when I started working on the video proper, it led me down a rabbit hole of stock plant footage, which grew into what you see here (not to mention what you see-hear)."

Wedren also released Sabbath Sessions Vol. 1 last week to complement his Sabbath Sessions podcasts from earlier this year. His latest album features improvised meditative music, born out of the introspection of his longtime mindfulness and wellness practices and uniting many different strands of his varied musical aptitudes. His "Sabbath Sessions" are live, improvised vocal-looping performances intended to help facilitate connection to self and imagination, and the album consists of three of these sessions: "My Birthday," "Interdependence Day" and "Days of Awe." "My Birthday" was recorded on Wedren's 51st birthday as a gift from Craig to listeners. "Interdependence Day" was recorded on July 3, 2020 -- the day before Independence Day -- in which Wedren proposes a new holiday and then sings you into dreamland. Finally, the last session on the album is "Days of Awe," which premiered via the podcast in September to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and the life of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

Listen to Sabbath Sessions Vol. 1 via Apple Music and Spotify HERE, and watch a newly-released live performance of the recording of the session HERE.

Craig Wedren has enjoyed a long, prolific and illustrious career. His first success came as the frontman to DC's seminal post-hardcore band Shudder To Think. They released 6 LPs, and countless EPs and singles before disbanding in 1998. Since that time Wedren's music has become an essential part of some of film and television's most popular and lauded shows including films The School of Rock and Laurel Canyon; and television shows like GLOW (Netflix), Shrill (with that dog.'s Anna Waronker), Reno 911!, Mrs. Fletcher (HBO), New Amsterdam (NBC) and Fresh Off The Boat (ABC), among others. He's also collaborated numerous times with his childhood friend David Wain including Role Models, The State and the Wet Hot American Summer movie and tv series.

He has also released a handful of albums, the most recent being Adult Desire (2017) and Adult Desire Expanded (2019). Outside of music Craig released My '90s--a limited edition hard-bound book featuring photos he took on his Polaroid Spectra in the 1990s and early 2000's, documenting his late nights and early mornings on the road with Shudder to Think and time with friends including Fugazi, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, members of The State and more. Read more on My '90s and see photos via Vanity Fair HERE.

Photo Credit: Peter Barreras

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